Mortgage Bailout, The Medicine Cabinet Tax and Human Achievement Hour
The Obama administration is expanding the mortgage-bailout program.
The new health care bill proscribes the use of Flexible Spending Accounts for over-the-counter drugs.
USA Today reports on Human Achievement Hour.
1. FINANCE
The Obama administration is expanding the mortgage-bailout program.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Counsel Hans Bader on why the original program failed.
“Earlier, the government pushed through billions more in other mortgage bailouts, to bail out even reckless high-income borrowers, and forced financial institutions the government took over in the name of fiscal responsibility, like Freddie Mac, to run up billions in losses bailing out irresponsible borrowers.”
2. HEALTH
The new health care bill proscribes the use of Flexible Spending Accounts for over-the-counter drugs.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau on what is essentially a “Medicine-Cabinet Tax.”
“The bill restricts individuals with these pre-tax accounts to buying a “medicine or drug only if such medicine or drug is a prescribed” one. And ironically, this tax that will raise health care costs substantially by creating incentives for the use of more expensive prescription drugs even when OTC drugs are just as safe and effective.”
3. HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT
USA Today reports on Human Achievement Hour.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst Michelle Minton the reason for the holiday.
“Those who celebrate Human Achievement Hour aren’t doing so because we like our hybrids, or our iPhones, we are celebrating the freedom that is necessary for humans to survive and create the products and services that make our world better and, in some cases, cleaner.”